In an effort to forge closer ties with the continent, the Russian government will start teaching three major African languages in a few Moscow schools this year.
This is in light of the deepening isolation that Russia feels on the global stage due to its invasion of Ukraine.
According to Alexei Maslow, director of the Lomonosov Moscow State University’s Center of Asian and African Studies, the languages will be taught in four as-yet-undisclosed schools beginning in September 2023. The languages include Amharic and Yoruba, which are spoken in Nigeria and its neighbouring nations, as well as Swahili, which is widely spoken in Eastern Africa.
The African languages will be taught as a part of a special programme of the IAAS-MSU and are meant to help forge closer ties with the continent, according to a report last week from the Russian news outlet Sputnik.
The declaration was made at a roundtable discussion on Russia-Africa relations hosted by Sputnik that was attended by professors from institutions in the two nations, and that was centred on “prospects for economic collaboration. If adopted, Russia will be the first European country to offer public school instruction in the African language.
How they spoke
There was enthusiasm at this news in some quarters in both Russia and Africa, and the Russian embassy in Uganda cheerfully tweeted the information.
According to the statement, students from four Moscow-area schools will start studying Swahili, Amharic, and Yoruba in September.
At the conference, Maslov said,
“A sudden shift to Africa requires a completely different type of specialists who could work closely with the economy and with contemporary political and economic elites, and most importantly, would realise that Africa is not just one big continent, but, a patchwork of diverse national, ethnic, religious, and linguistic traditions.”
“A sudden shift to Africa calls for a totally new kind of professional.”
choosing which languages to use
Swahili, also known as Kiswahili, is one of Africa’s most frequently spoken languages. It is mostly spoken in the East African countries of Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Burundi, Rwanda, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. More than 200 million individuals speak the language, and Kenya and Tanzania both have it as their official language, and the African Union has designated it as their common tongue.
On the other hand, Yoruba is largely spoken by approximately 50 million people in West Africa in Nigeria, Benin, and Togo. Amharic is a language that about 50 million people speak in Ethiopia and Eritrea.
Around 100,000 African students have indicated an interest in studying in Russia, and about 30,000 of them are presently enrolled in Russian universities, according to the Study in Russia organisation Racus. The country has upped its recruitment efforts in recent years, using affordability and quality as the selling points. 22,000 African students pay $110 million in tuition to Russia each year.
According to Russian President Vladimir Putin, 5,000 of the 27,000 African students studying there are receiving government scholarships, indicating that collaboration between Russia and Africa in the sphere of education is “at a customarily high level.”
